CANTON, Texas — An outbreak of tornadoes scissored through east and central Texas on Tuesday, damaging as many as 100 homes in one county alone, authorities said.

One twister ripped through rural Van Zandt County, carving a swathe of destruction about eight miles long and a mile wide, said sheriff's Lt. Chuck Allen, who is also the county's emergency management coordinator.

"We're probably looking at close to 100 homes" that sustained damage, Allen told msnbc.com. "The terrain is rolling countryside, real wooded areas. A lot of these homes are set off the roadway into the trees."

One person was confirmed injured but details were not known, Allen said.

Power lines were down across the county, population 54,000, and many roads were flooded.

Severe damage to trees and to roof shingles was reported after a series of tornadoes struck Mabank, a town of about 3,400 residents about 50 miles southeast of Dallas, said Police Chief Kyle McAfee. Shoppers at the Brookshire's supermarket in Mabank sought shelter in a walk-in freezer until the danger passed, KDFW-TV of Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

Severe storms and possible tornadoes were also reported Tuesday night in others states including Louisiana, Kentucky and Arkansas.

The nasty weather came a day after a series of powerful storms in Arkansas killed 11 people in flooding and a tornado that twisted a tractor-trailer like a wrung dish rag.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management confirmed early Wednesday that the latest victim, who brought the previous two-day death toll up from 10, died when a storm struck a residence near Arkansas Highway 230 in Sharp County.

The National Weather Service issued a high risk warning for severe weather in a stretch extending from northeast of Memphis to just northeast of Dallas and covering a large swath of Arkansas. It last issued such a warning on April 16, when dozens of tornadoes hit North Carolina and killed 21 people.

There were minor injuries reported in Louisiana when an oil drilling site turned over in high winds.

In southwestern Michigan, nine people were sent to the hospital, one with serious injuries, when lightning struck a park where children and adults were playing soccer, police said.

Dozens of tornado warnings had been issued in Arkansas Tuesday night. Strong winds peeled part of the roof off of a medical building next to a hospital in West Memphis, near the Tennessee border, but no one was inside.

Danny Johnston
/
AP

Debris from the twister that hit Vilonia, Ark., is seen Tuesday.

The latest round of storms began as communities in much of the region struggled with flooding and damage from earlier twisters. In Arkansas, a tornado smashed Vilonia, just north of Little Rock, on Monday night, ripping the roof off the grocery store, flattening homes and tossing vehicles into the air.

'I love you, Mom'
An early warning may have saved Lisa Watson's life in that case. She packed up her three children and was speeding away from the Black Oak Ranch subdivision in Vilonia when she looked to her left and saw the twister approach. Two of her neighbors died in their mobile homes, and a visiting couple who took shelter in a metal shipping container where the husband stored tools died when the container was blown at least 150 feet into a creek.

Jimmy Talley said his brother, David, told his mother that he and his wife, Katherine, were leaving the mobile home they'd been staying in because they thought the container would be safe.

"He said 'I love you, Mom,' and that's the last that anybody heard from him," Jimmy Talley said.
The tornado also reduced the mobile home the couple had been staying in to a pile of boards and belongings. The other victims were Charles Mitchell, 55, and a 63-year-old man whose name has not yet been released.

Emergency workers kept non-residents out of the subdivision Tuesday. Pictures Watson took when she returned home showed a collection of demolished mobile homes, including what looked like a pile of insulation that she said had been a trailer.

The survivors included the 12 Vilonia residents who took refuge in the storm shelter at Amber Goodnight's home.

As four children and six adults huddled below, she and her husband "saw the tornado coming over the store (across the street) and as soon as it was hitting the store we ran into the storm cellar,"
she told weather.com.

"The actual tornado lasted probably about two to three minutes but we stayed in here about 30 minutes," she said.

Faulkner County Judge Preston Scroggin said the tornado tore through an area 3 miles wide and 15 miles long, and he thought more people might have died if the residents hadn't been receiving warnings about a possible outbreak of tornadoes since the weekend and the local weather office hadn't issued a warning almost 45 minutes before the twister hit Vilonia.

Pat Fulmer, 54, saw the warning on television and took shelter in a safe room. But as the minutes passed, she thought it might be a false alarm. The area had already received warnings for two other rotating storms that didn't result in touchdowns, she said.

"It was about to the point that we thought they were crying, 'Wolf,'" Fulmer said. Then as the tornado approached about 7:30 p.m., she began receiving calls and text messages telling her it was coming.

Vilonia Mayor James Firestone said cleanup and recover work began immediately.

"We had people lined up with chain saws at city hall ready to go to work," he said. The county's emergency management director said 70 homes were destroyed at Vilonia, with another 51 sustaining major damage.

Jay Arendal, who had moved to the area only weeks before, lost his home but said he planned to rebuild. He had sent his wife and two daughters into a pantry and went into a closet with his two sons just before the house fell apart around them. The only thing left was a concrete foundation and scattered piles of wet belongings.

"I've got the shirt on my back," Arendal said. "We're going to pull the nails out of this lumber and raise this back."

In the Quail Hollow subdivision, many homes appeared Tuesday as though they had never had roofs — there were no shingles or other roofing material on the ground. It was just gone.

Terina Atkins, 37, a middle school librarian, rode out the storm with her family in their laundry room. Adkins said at one point, she heard a loud sucking noise and realized the air was being sucked out of the drain in a sink.

"We clogged up the sink and we could feel our ears popping," Atkins said.

Rick Satterwhite, 61, and his wife Debbie, 57, clambered into their concrete storm cellar as warnings sounded. After a few minutes, Rick Satterwhite unlatched the door, thinking the storm might have passed. Instead, he saw the tops of trees swirling, and the storm sucked the air out of the shelter.

Video: More destructive storms expected

Closed captioning of: More destructive storms expected

>>cantore. he's in arkadelphia, arkansas tonight, where it got sporty a little while ago. jim, we were watching your incoming feed.

>> reporter: yeah, brian. the savage april continues here. and what makes tonight really interesting is the fact that yes, we've dealt with one round of storms. some of them have gone tornado off to our east. but the atmosphere is just so perfect and conditioned for tornadoes, another punch of the atmosphere is going to come in through here and we will have more storms that will possibly produce tornadoes here. probably a couple of times as we go on through the night tonight. so much real estate. as we move into tomorrow, too, you can see huge areas, especially from tupelo into huntsville, up into nashville, we'll be under that
high risk
for these long track and deadly tornadoes. and then as we get into thursday as these storms track overnight on wednesday it's the i-95 corridor. so as you mentioned, some 150 million people will be affected. when it's all over and we get a chance to breathe, 300 gauges will be in flood and hundreds of thousands of acres will still be underwater. brian?

>>all right.
jim cantore
in arkadelphia, arkansas. jim, we hope you and your team stay as safe as possible as we go on
into the night
covering all of this.

City surveyor Tony Moon works on a makeshift levee on the edge of the flooding Mississippi River with the temporarily shuttered Isle of Capri riverboat casino behind him, Friday, May 20 in Natchez, Miss. The river was forecast to crest at 62.1 feet, the highest level in Natchez recorded history.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Haley English, 7, cries into the arms of her mother, Naomi English, as she looks toward her submerged house in Vicksburg, Miss., on May 20.
(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

A precautionary sign warning of flooding is almost covered by Mississippi River floodwaters along the road to LeTourneau Technologies, in Vicksburg, Miss., on May 20.
(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Workers build a 16-foot makeshift levee to protect the 100-year-old JM Jones Lumber Company on the edge of the flooding Mississippi River on May 20 in Natchez, Miss.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

A corrections officer motors through floodwaters to pick up prisoners helping sandbag against the flooding in Vidalia, La., on May 19.
(Gerald Herbert / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Floodwaters from the Yazoo River creep across crops near Yazoo City, Miss., on May 19. The Yazoo backed up because of Mississippi River flooding.
(Dave Martin / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Guy and Diane Creekmore check out their flooded home on May 18 in Vicksburg, Miss. The Creekmores take daily trips out to see the damage to their home, which is currently filled with about 4 feet of floodwater. They also feed the possums and a raccoon that have been stranded on the roof of their home.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers looks over sandbags along the rising Mississippi River in Natchez, Miss., on Wednesday, May 18. Cargo was slowly moving along the bloated Mississippi River after a costly daylong standstill.
(Gerald Herbert / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Louisiana Army National Guard Sgt. Michael Leehy inspects new makeshift levee modifications on May 17 in Morgan City. The Morganza Spillway floodgates were opened for the first time in nearly forty years and have succussfully lowered the crest of the flooding Mississippi River, but towns like Morgan City expect to get hit by some of the diverted water.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Farmers work as floodwaters from the Mississippi River creep across their fields in Natchez, Miss., on May 17. Heavy flooding from Mississippi tributaries has displaced more than 4,000 in the state, about half of them upstream from Natchez in the Vicksburg area.
(Dave Martin / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

April Bordelon helps her brother Justin Reech move a load of belongings from his home in Big Bend, La., into a community known as Canadaville, in Simmesport, La., on May 16. The community was formerly used by Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
(Gerald Herbert / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Brenda Hynum hugs her daughter Debra Emery as they watch floodwaters rise around Emery's mobile home in Vicksburg, Miss., on May 16. A sand berm around the trailer failed in the night and floodwaters from the rising Mississippi river rushed in. "We tried so hard to stop it. It goes from anger to utter disbelief that this could happen. I just want to go home," Emery said.
(Dave Martin / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

A woman in Stephensville, La., ties sandbags on May 15 as people throughout the region race to protect their homes from rising floodwaters due to the opening of the Morganza Spillway.
(Sean Gardner / Reuters)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Giant whirlpools the size of cars develop along the Atchafalaya River on May 15 due to the opening of the Morganza Spillway. Deputies warned people to get out as Mississippi River water gushing from floodgates for the first time in four decades crept ever closer to communities in Louisiana Cajun country.
(P.C. Piazza / The Lafayette Daily Advertiser via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Brittany Pearce, left, wipes her eyes while taking a break with Leanna Gresco after a long day of throwing sandbags in front of Pearce's grandparents' house in Stephensville, La. on, May 15.
(Sean Gardner / Reuters)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

National Guardsman Spec. Lionel Lefleur stands guard on top of a levee checking vehicles trying to enter town, May 15, in Butte LaRose, La. The National Guard was trying to allow only residents trying to evacuate their homes into the town.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Brittany Ryder, 11, looks on as family members clear out their house during a mandatory evacuation, May 15, in Melville, La.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Mary Williams, right, looks on as family members pack the contents of her home, where she has lived since 1948, during a mandatory evacuation order, May 15, in Krotz Springs, La.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Arionne Ruffin, 7, pushes her cousin Josh Ruffin, 3, in a toy car while Alexis Rhodes, 8, plays in front of her family's home, May 15, in Bayou Black, La. The Rhodes, who have sandbagged around their home, purchased the house in February and are anxious about the impending flooding.
(Julia Rendleman / The Houma Courier via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Water diverted from the Mississippi River spills through a bay in the Morganza Spillway in Morganza, La., May 14. Water from the inflated Mississippi River gushed through a floodgate Saturday for the first time in nearly four decades and headed toward thousands of homes and farmland in the Cajun countryside, threatening to slowly submerge the land under water up to 25 feet deep.
(Patrick Semansky / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Flood waters from the Mississippi River pour over a levee on the Yazoo River, a tributary to the Mississippi River, north of Vicksburg, Miss., May 13. Thousands of residents who live along or near the river from Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana have been forced to evacuate, and thousands of acres of prime farmland have been covered by the record-setting rising waters.
(Chris Todd / EPA)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

City workers transport sandbags past the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Station on May 12, in Vicksburg, Miss. The historic station is near the Mississippi River but the rest of downtown is on a bluff above.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Residents of Vicksburg, Miss., take advantage of the raised railroad tracks north of the city to fish in the Mississippi River flood waters late Thursday, May 12. The fishermen along the tracks were treated to the sight of a 10-foot long alligator swimming in the waters.
(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Mobile homes sit in water as high as their rooftops near Watkins, Tenn., May 10.
(Mike Brown / The Commercial Appeal via Zuma Press)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Workers look for minor imperfections to correct before pinning down high density polyethylene covering on the backside of the Yazoo Backwater Levee in Vicksburg on May 10. The cover will act as a barrier if overtopping occurs and will inhibit backside erosion of the levee.
(Sean Gardner / Reuters)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

The Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn., as seen on April 21, 2010 in the satellite image on the left, and during it's crest on May 10, 2011, at right. The river reached 47.8 feet, just under the record of 48.7 feet set in 1937. Mud Island river park can be seen in the upper right corner.
(NASA)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Melvina Jones carries a mirror through floodwaters as the swelling Mississippi River begins to surround her sister's home in Vicksburg, Miss. on Tuesday, May 10.
(Sean Gardner / Reuters)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

This industrial facility was flooded by the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn., on May 10. The river earlier that day crested in Memphis just short of its 1937 record.
(Dan Anderson / EPA)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Water covers a gravestone, May 9, in Luxora Ark. The town sits along the Mississippi River where the water level is currently higher than the level of the town causing the ground to be saturated and leaving nowhere for the water in the town to drain.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

(Left) Workers use a crane to remove some of the Bonnet Carre Spillway's barriers in Norco, La. on May 9 in anticipation of rising floodwater. The spillway, which the Corps built about 30 miles upriver from New Orleans in response to the great flood of 1927, was last opened during the spring 2008. Monday marked the 10th time it has been opened since the structure was completed in 1931. The spillway diverts water from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain.

A cell block is seen alongside an inner levee along the Mississippi River at Angola State Prison in West Feliciana Parish, La. on May 9. A convoy of buses and vans transferred inmates with medical problems from Angola, which is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi River.
(Patrick Semansky / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Reggie Smith wears a sandbag on his head in an effort to keep dry in a steady rain as he works to fill sandbags outside the RiverTown condominiums on May 7 on Mud Island in Memphis, Tenn.
(Jeff Roberson / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Jerry Brooks wades through his yard on May 6 in Bogota, Tenn. Heavy rains have left the ground saturated, rivers swollen, and have caused widespread flooding in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

James Dunn gives his grandson Caleb Walker a paddle boat ride down the middle of a flooded street near his home on May 5 in Metropolis.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Mississippi wildlife agent Hugh Johnson walks past a dead whitetail buck in Greenville, Miss., on May 5. Johnson said herds of deer, coyotes, some wild hogs and other wildlife are swimming to Greenville because of flooding on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. This deer broke its neck when it tried to run through a chain fence.
(Rogelio V. Solis / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

James Strayhorn carries groceries through a flooded neighborhood back to his home in Tiptonville, Tenn. on May 4. Heavy rains have left the ground saturated and have caused widespread flooding in Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Rita Gieselman leads the way as Phil Vanover follows after checking on his home in the 100 block of Chestnut Street in Rumsey, Ky. on May 4.
(John Dunham / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Debbie Ricketts, left, and her Point Township, Ind., neighbors, Bill, center, and Hank Cox basked in the sun on their old grain bin cement foundation that they dubbed "Gilligan's Island," on the afternoon of May 4.
(Denny Simmons / The Evansville Courier & Press via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Volunteers fill sandbags at the Pyramid Arena to prepare for rising floodwaters from the Mississippi River in Memphis, Tenn. on May 4. The National Weather Service is predicting a 48-foot crest of the Mississippi River on May 11.
(Lance Murphey / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

David Lucas, left, and Lauren Lucas, right, comfort Carla Jenkins, owner of Vidalia Dock and Storage Co., after deciding to evacuate her business in Vidalia, La. on May 3 due to the threat of the predicted Mississippi River flood.
(Eric J. Shelton / The Natchez Democrat via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Floodwater engulfs a home near Wyatt, Mo., on May 3, after the Army Corps of Engineers blew a massive hole in a levee at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to divert water from the town of Cairo, Illinois. The diversion flooded about 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland and 100 homes.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Roy Presson embraces his daughters Catherine and Amanda as they stand on the edge of State Highway HH looking out at their family farm in Wyatt, Mo., on Tuesday. The Presson home and 2,400 acres of land that they farmed was flooded by an engineered levee break.
(Scott Olson / Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

An explosion lights up the night sky as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blows an 11,000-foot hole in the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County, Mo. on Monday. The breach lowered the flood levels at Cairo, Illinois, and other communities.
(David Carson / St. Louis Post-Dispatch via EPA)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

James Bindon waits for more loads of sand to be delivered to the riverfront in Vidalia, La., on May 9. Crews planned to use the sand to fill temporary levees in preparation for the predicted Mississippi River flood.
(Ben Hillyer / The Natchez Democrat via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Volunteers hastily build a wall of sandbags along Illinois 3 on May 8 in the community of Olive Branch.
(Alan Rogers / The Southern Illinoisan via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Anna Mayhood leaped to safety from her vehicle after the Broad Street Bridge collapsed beneath it on April 27 in Moriah, N.Y. Authorities said flooding closed nearly 60 roads across the Adirondacks, most of them in Essex County, scene of some of the worst damage.
(Lohr Mckinstry / The Press Republican via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Kenny Back pulls a boat with his sister Jessica Capp and wife Theresa Back to collect belongings from their parents' flooded home on April 27 in Old Shawneetown, Illinois.
(Stephen Rickerl / The Southern via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Volunteers place sandbags atop a temporary levee to fight back floodwaters as lightning from a thunderstorm is seen in the background on April 26, in Dutchtown, Mo.
(Jeff Roberson / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Four houses are surrounded by floodwaters from the Current River just outside Doniphan, Mo., on April 26. The area received several inches of rain in previous days.
(Paul Davis / Daily American Republic via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

A rail service vehicle and a pickup sit stranded in floodwaters from the Black River south of Poplar Bluff, Mo., on April 25.
(Paul Davis / Daily American Republic via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Residents of Oak Glen Residential Community are assisted by rescue personnel as rising waters from a nearby creek forced them to evacuate their homes in Johnson, Ark., on April 25.
(Beth Hall / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Leon Gentry looks out over floodwaters that surround his garage after he spent the morning working to secure what he could from the rising water in Henderson, Ky., on April 25.
(Mike Lawrence / The Gleaner via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Kim Mada loads equipment into a truck to avoid rising water at Falcon Floats in Tahlequah, Okla., on April 25.
(Matt Barnard / Tulsa World via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Butler County, Mo., Sheriff Mark Dobbs stands on a levee along the Black River, right, on April 25, where floodwaters were running over into adjacent farmland southeast of Poplar Bluff. The levee broke in this location during a 2008 flood.
(Paul Davis / Daily American Republic via AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Kasey Medley, right, stands on the front porch of her flooded home with her friend Erica Cass in Poplar Bluff, Mo., on April 26.
(Jeff Roberson / AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.